NZ Chefs Auckland President Jasbir Kaur is helping put New Zealand cuisine on the map, teaching budding chefs across
America and Canada how to inject Kiwi flavour into their dishes.
“It is a real honour to be showcasing New Zealand’s unique cooking styles and ingredients on the global stage”, says
Kaur, who is General Manager of Ignite Colleges, home of Auckland’s newest and most innovative cookery training
programmes.
This week Kaur heads to Miami, Seattle, San Francisco and Vancouver, where she will represent New Zealand at leading
international culinary arts schools, delivering Kiwi-inspired cooking demonstrations to the world’s future chefs.
Along with a large dose of Kiwi flavour (including horopito and pikopiko), Kaur plans to add a Spanish twist to her
demonstration dishes. Both are cuisines she is highly passionate about after working at Barcelona’s Michelin-starred
Disfrutar and representing New Zealand at the World Tapas competition in Valladolid two years ago. Last year Ignite
Colleges hosted the first ever Australasian Tapas competition, which saw the winner compete at the World Tapas event in
Spain under Kaur’s expert guidance.
”I am very excited about sharing my expertise with chefs in the USA and Canada. I hope this will sow the seeds for them
to learn more about Kiwi cuisine, and one day come down here to explore all our amazing country has to offer.”
Amongst the schools Kaur will be visiting during the two-week tour are the Miami Culinary Institute, Seattle Culinary
Academy, San Francisco Cooking School (SFCS), and the Canadian Food and Wine Institute.
While there, she will wow students with innovative dishes such as seabass cooked in manuka salt with olive and seaweed
tapenade, infused with pikopiko, pickled tapioca pearls and cauliflower and horopito custard.
“This dish combines cooking techniques I learned at Disfrutar with New Zealand ingredients that many overseas chefs will
not be familiar with. They might think it is a bit unusual, but I am sure they are going to love it!”
Kaur – who will also be judging a culinary competition in Miami - hopes the tour will open up opportunities for American
and Canadian chefs to visit New Zealand to deliver their own master classes and cooking demonstrations to Ignite
Colleges’ Level 3, 4 and 5 students.
“At Ignite Colleges we deliver world-class cookery training that prepares chefs not only for careers in New Zealand, but
also to succeed on the global stage. Connecting with chefs around the world is a great way to promote our national
cuisine offshore and help New Zealand’s future chefs gain the international exposure they need to succeed.”